If You're Thinking of Living in: Old Bridge

By JERRY CHESLOW

Published: April 21, 1991

ALTHOUGH its population has grown by nearly 50 percent in the last decade, the 42-square-mile Old Bridge Townshipin New Jersey's Middlesex County still has a lot of open space and is determined to keep it that way.

About a third of the community is still farmland and it is home to the 1,000-acre Cheesequake State Park, with its lake, campsites and nature trails.

Mayor Arthur M. Haney says that his administration has worked to preserve open space by asking developers seeking approval for large projects to contribute land and money. So far, he said, they have contributed more than 400 acres and $600,000 to the Open Spaces Trust Fund.

Next month the township is opening the 35-acre Geik Park off Route 516, one of the six highways that pass through the township. The others are Routes 9, 34, 35 and 18 and the Garden State Parkway. The new park, the largest owned by the township, has three baseball diamonds, a football field, a stocked fishing pond and a sensory garden for the handicapped.

The housing stock is varied, with the least expensive and smallest in the Laurence Harbor section, along Raritan Bay. Many are one-story bungalows dating to the 20's, when the area was a popular resort with a boardwalk, miniature golf course, dance hall and small beach tents that could be rented for $25 a season. The growth of the highway network and competition from Atlantic City gradually strangled the resort business.

Two-bedroom bungalows now sell for about $75,000 to $95,000 and three-bedroom houses for $110,000 to $135,000, according to Cathy Cleveland, a broker with the ERA Designs for Living realty. She said sales of one-family houses have risen about 25 percent in the last year.

The Laurence Harbor beach, with a view stretching from the Manhattan skyline to Sandy Hook, was badly eroded in 1962 storms. They drove down property values and damaged homes. Joseph P. Leo, the township business administrator, said the state Department of Environmental Protection is considering alloting Old Bridge $2 million to improve the beaches. From 1985 to 1990 it got $330,000 in Federal block grants for restoration, which is expected to start in the fall.

Among the newer residents are Steven and Bonnie Goldberg, who bought a four-bedroom basic colonial on a third of an acre in the 220-house Country Place development a mile south of Route 516 five years ago. Mr. Goldberg, a claims manager for the Public Service Mutual Insurance Company in Manhattan, said his family -- they have a 14-year-old son and an 11-year-old daughter -- had outgrown their two-bedroom Brooklyn apartment.

"WE were drawn here," he said, "because we had friends in the area, it has an excellent school system and is close enough to give you the amenities of Manhattan, but far enough away to allow you to still see horses and cows walking around."

A member of the township board of education, he says it was "not difficult" to get involved in local politics because so many residents are newcomers.

Mr. Leo, who has lived in Old Bridge 35 years, said development has been positive for the township but a bit too rapid.

"We have gone from a farming environment to a community of young professionals, teachers and data processors in just 15 years," he said. He added that the town "was not conscious of the services all of these people would need and the need for commercial ratables to pay for them, so now we are paying the price in higher taxes on homeowners."

The largest development is Sayrewoods South off Routes 9 and 516 in the Browntown section. It has 1,800 one-family split levels, ranches and colonials, ranging from $125,000 for a small three-bedroom ranch to about $170,000 for a large four-bedroom colonial. A three-bedroom, one-and-a-half-bath split level was recently listed for $141,900.

The most expensive area is the Oaks at Old Bridge, off Route 9 and Inverness Road, where about 300 large, contemporary houses were built two years ago. The three- to five-bedroom houses sell for $250,000 to $325,000, Mayor Haney said.

Nearly two dozen town-house condominium developments were built in the last 15 years. The largest is the 381-unit Society Hill, across from the municipal complex off Route 516 and Cottrell Road, where one-bedroom units sell for $85,000 to $100,000. A two-bedroom unit was listed recently at $128,000 and three-bedroom units have been selling for about $140,000.

Most of the township's 10,000 rental apartments are concentrated along Route 9. The largest complex is the 1,100-unit Glenwood Apartments, where studios rent for $555, one-bedroom units for $640 and two-bedrooms for $755.

The township's rapid development over the last two decades has outpaced services. Highways become parking lots at rush hour and the sewer and water systems are inadequate. Township officials hope the developers of new projects can be required to pay impact fees for municipal improvements.

At the intersection of Route 9 and Ernston Road, one of the worst bottlenecks in the state, construction is to start in May on a six-lane overpass. The $37 million dollar project is being financed by the state, while Route 516 is to be widened at Middlesex County's expense.